Understanding your post suggestion brief

Every post suggestion Sam generates comes with a full creative brief. It's not just a post idea — it's a complete set of instructions built from your account data, your growth goal, and your campaign objectives.

This article explains what each field means and why it matters.

Sam generates post suggestions across three formats. The format is shown at the top of every post suggestion, alongside the suggested date and time.

A single static image post. This is the most versatile format and works across a wide range of content types — data visuals, brand statements, educational graphics, text-on-image posts, quotes, and product or service showcases.

Sam selects this format when your account data shows it performs well for your growth goal, or when the content angle is best served by a single strong visual moment rather than a sequence or video.

The Visual Style, Overlay Text, and Context / Caption fields in the brief give specific guidance on how the image should be designed and what it should communicate at a glance.

A short-form video post, typically suited to Reels format on Instagram. Video posts have three additional brief fields — Hook, Duration, and Talking Points — that give specific direction for filming and delivery.

Sam selects this format when video has historically driven strong performance signals on your account, or when the content angle requires movement, demonstration, or a more personal on-camera delivery to land effectively.

The Hook is the single most important element of any video brief. Execute it as closely as possible — it determines whether anyone watches past the first three seconds.

A multi-slide post that the viewer swipes through. Carousel posts have three additional brief fields — Slide Count, Slide Breakdown, and Call to Action — that map out the structure slide by slide.

Sam selects this format when the content angle benefits from a sequential narrative, detailed explanation, or step-by-step structure that a single image can't contain. Carousels also tend to generate strong save and share signals when the content is genuinely useful — which makes them particularly effective for Engagement & Community Building and Conversion goals.

The Slide Breakdown is the production brief for the carousel. Follow it slide by slide.

💡 These three formats are the current foundation. Sam will develop more specific format suggestions over time — for example, distinguishing between talking head video, B-roll, or text-on-screen — as the platform evolves.

The Funnel Stage tells you where this post sits in the customer journey — how close to a decision the audience this post is designed to reach is likely to be.

Funnel Stage maps directly to the growth goal you selected when creating your campaign:

This matters because a post designed for someone who has never heard of you should look and feel very different from a post designed for someone who is almost ready to buy. Funnel Stage tells you which audience this brief is written for, so you can execute it with that person in mind.

💡 Funnel Stage labels will be updated to match the current Clue Labs growth goal names. For now: Awareness = Video Views & Brand Awareness, Interest = Non Followers Interest & New Followers, Consideration = Engagement & Community Building, Conversion = Conversion & Lead Generating.

The Theme is the strategic angle of the post — what it's about and why that angle was chosen for this moment in your campaign.

It's not a caption or a script. It's the brief behind the brief. Sam explains the central idea of the post, how it connects to your brand, and why this angle is relevant to your audience right now based on your data and objectives.

Read the Theme before anything else. It's the foundation everything else in the brief is built on. If you're handing this post to a designer or videographer, the Theme is what they need to understand before they look at anything more specific.

Visual Style is Sam's direction on how the post should look and feel — design approach, layout principles, use of colour, typography, and presentation.

This is not decorative guidance. Visual style has a direct impact on how far a post travels. Content that looks consistent, on-brand, and well-considered performs differently from content that doesn't — because the algorithm reads signals like time spent on post and save rate, both of which are influenced by how the content looks.

Use Visual Style as the design brief. If you work with a designer or content creator, this section goes to them.

Overlay Text is the suggested text to display on the image or video itself — the words a viewer reads before they read the caption.

On social media, most people decide whether to stop scrolling based on what they see in the first half-second. Overlay text is that decision point. Sam generates overlay text that is designed to stop the scroll for the audience this post is targeting, based on what has worked for your account historically.

You don't have to use it verbatim. But treat it as a strong starting point — it's grounded in your data, not a guess.

Context / Caption is a suggested caption framework for the post. It gives you the key messages to communicate in your caption, in a logical sequence.

It's not a finished caption and it's not meant to be copied and pasted. It's the substance of what the caption should say — the points to hit, the order to hit them in, and the tone to aim for. Write your actual caption from this, in your own voice.

The caption is where your personality lives. Sam gives you the structure. You bring the voice.

Reasoning is Sam's explanation of why he generated this specific post — the data behind the decision.

This is one of the most important fields in the brief, and the one most people skip. Reasoning tells you things like: which post format has the highest engagement rate on your account and why Sam chose it, what your audience data shows about this topic, or why this angle is likely to perform for your growth goal at this point in your campaign.

Reading the Reasoning turns a brief into an education. Over time, understanding why Sam makes the choices he makes helps you develop better instincts about your content — even outside of Clue Labs.

Expected Engagement is Sam's prediction of how this post is likely to perform, based on your account's historical data and the format and angle chosen.

It's not a guarantee. It's a signal. If Sam flags high expected engagement, it's worth prioritising that post in your schedule. If expected engagement is moderate, that doesn't mean skip it — some posts exist to serve the funnel rather than generate immediate interaction, and Sam's Reasoning will usually explain why.

Use Expected Engagement to help you sequence and prioritise your content, particularly when working through a large campaign.

Repurpose Ideas are suggestions for how to extend the content beyond the original post — other formats, channels, or uses the same idea could be adapted for.

Social media content takes significant effort to produce. Repurpose Ideas help you get more from what you've already created. A strong image post might become a carousel. A video might be clipped for Reels. Content that performs well might be worth turning into a blog post or email.

These are optional, but worth reading — particularly if you're managing other content channels alongside your social media.

The Hook is the opening line, question, or scene that the video should open with.

On social media, video retention drops sharply in the first three seconds. The hook is everything. Sam generates a hook based on what has historically stopped your audience from scrolling — a question that speaks directly to their situation, a statement that challenges an assumption, or an opening scene that creates immediate visual interest.

Execute the hook exactly as briefed, or as close to it as possible. It is the most important three seconds of the post.

Duration is Sam's recommended length for the video in seconds.

This is based on your account's performance data — specifically, average watch time and completion rate for videos on your account, and what duration tends to drive the best signals for your growth goal. A video that runs longer than your audience typically watches will lose retention signals. A video that's too short for the content won't land.

Use Duration as a firm target, not a loose guideline.

Talking Points are the key messages the video should cover, in order.

They're not a script. They're the substance — the ideas to communicate, structured so the video builds logically from the hook to the call to action. Use them to plan your shoot or structure your on-camera delivery. A video that covers all the talking points in order will stay on brief even if the exact wording differs.

Slide Count is Sam's recommendation for how many slides the carousel should contain.

Carousel length affects how much of the content gets consumed. Too few slides and the idea doesn't have room to breathe. Too many and you lose people before the end. Sam bases the slide count on your audience's engagement behaviour with carousel content on your account — specifically, how far through carousels your audience typically swipes.

Stick to the recommended slide count unless you have a strong reason not to.

Slide Breakdown is the structure of the carousel — what each individual slide should cover, in sequence.

This is the most detailed piece of direction in any brief. Sam maps out the narrative arc of the carousel slide by slide, from the opening hook through to the final call to action. Use this as the production brief for whoever is designing the carousel. Each slide should do one job clearly, and the Slide Breakdown tells you what that job is for each one.

Call to Action is the instruction on the final slide — what you want the viewer to do after consuming the carousel.

Carousels that end without a clear next step waste the engagement they've built. The final slide is where interest converts into action — a comment, a follow, a DM, a link click. Sam generates a Call to Action that is appropriate for the funnel stage and growth goal of the campaign.

Use it. The last slide matters as much as the first.